Bios Settings For A Non-raid Serial Hard Drive

[Mohlianum]

Hello,
I am hoping someone can tell me what must be enabled/disabled in the bios to install XP on 2 SATA drives in Non-Raid mode.

I found some drivers on the motherboard disc but Windows did not ask for them when I pressed f6 and inserted the floppy.
I therefore have XP installed but the drives or partitions aren't recognised.
I may not have the bios settings correct but I thought this would all be done when the PC was built for me minus the OS

The motherboard is an Asus P5GD2,

Hope you can help, thankfully I still have my old PC,

Mohlianum

 

[vegasgmc]

First, set the jumpers on the hard drives to Master with Slave present. It should be the center pins. Then go into the BIOS and under BOOT select the drive that you want to be the boot drive. You only need the F6 drivers if you are going to have a RAID set up.

 

[i_need_answers]

I didnt think SATA had jumpers ????

 

[Mohlianum]

Thanks for your reply vegasgmc, however I was going to say the same thing. I understood serial drives didn't have jumpers & do need the drivers in non-raid as windows doesn't recognise SATA.

 

[i_need_answers]

If you can boot into Windows try the add new hardware wizard or running the .exe from the cd for the drivers.

 

[Mohlianum]

I have tried adding them with new hardware wizard but all it comes up with are the Raid controllers which I removed from the system manager before I rebooted. This why I thought something wants changing in the bios

 

[i_need_answers]

Oh well sorry I haven't really dealt with SATA much before but im sure there's lots of people here that can help you.

 

[Electrick Gypsy]

Both my Western Digital SATA's have jumpers.
I left the BIOS to Auto-Detect, booted the system from DVD ROM with XP and installed without a problem - - no RAID

 

[Mohlianum]

Thanks, I will have to see if I can put some of the bios settings here to see if they are set ok.

One setting was the following which the default was (Standard IDE)
Should this be set to AHCI?

Configure SATA As [Standard IDE]

Sets the Serial ATA configuration. When set in Advanced Host Controller
Interface (AHCI) or RAID mode the SATA controller is set to Native mode.
Configuration options: [Standard IDE] [AHCI] [RAID]

 

[Mohlianum]

Had another Google & I think I have found what I was looking for, but the warning at the end is a bit worrying.

I have posted the article, it might help someone.




Intel® Matrix Storage Technology
Changing and/or choosing Serial ATA modes
Serial ATA (SATA) modes

The SATA controller has three modes of operation:

IDE mode - no AHCI, no RAID
SATA mode (sometimes called AHCI mode) - AHCI enabled, no RAID
RAID mode - AHCI enabled, RAID enabled
NOTE: Your system may not have all three options, depending on the motherboard manufacturer and model.

The SATA mode in the system BIOS determines which operating mode your system is using, whether you need the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager, and which I/O controller you should choose during the F6 installation process.

IDE mode uses a different driver than SATA and RAID mode.

IDE mode uses a native Microsoft* driver and does not require the F6 installation method.
SATA and RAID mode both use the Intel Matrix Storage Manager and require the F6 installation method.
Configuring the BIOS

In order to enable RAID or AHCI mode on an Intel® motherboard, you will need to do the following:

To enable RAID mode:

Enter the BIOS
Select Advanced
Select Drive Configuration
Enable Intel® RAID Technology
If you want to set up your RAID configuration, reboot and press CTRL-I when prompted. This will allow you to enter the Intel Matrix Storage Manager option ROM user interface, where you can set up your RAID.
If you want to make the system RAID Ready, no further action is required.
Save changes and exit the BIOS configuration
To enable AHCI mode:

Enter the BIOS
Select Advanced
Select Drive Configuration
Disable Intel RAID Technology
Enable SATA AHCI mode
Save changes and exit the BIOS configuration
NOTE: If you are using a SATA hard drive, the best choice is to set your BIOS to RAID mode and install the operating system using the F6 installation procedure; RAID mode allows your system to be "RAID Ready" and also enables AHCI. This mode provides the greatest overall flexibility and upgradeability.

WARNING: Switching SATA modes in the BIOS after installing the operating system is not recommended when a SATA drive is the boot drive. Switching modes may cause an "NTLDR" error, an immediate blue screen error followed by a reboot, or another boot failure.


This applies to: Intel® Matrix Storage Manager
Intel® Matrix Storage Technology

 

[IronDuke]

You still need the raid drivers even if you're not raiding. The warning was against switching to a raid configuration after the OS is installed.

 

[Mohlianum]

Thanks, yes I realised what the warning was for, I did have XP installed.

I have had a second attempt & drivers loaded but I hadn't altered the settings in the bios so discs are still not properly installed according to this article from Intel below.

I do not have any of those listed below, but it should be - 'Intel(R) 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller' I think.




5. From the Device Manager, look for an entry named
'SCSI and RAID Controllers'.
If this entry is present, expand it and look for one of
the following controllers:

- 'Intel(R) 82801GR SATA RAID Controller'
If the Controller above is present, the system is an
ICH7R system in RAID mode and no further action is required.

- 'Intel(R) 82801GH SATA RAID Controller'
If the Controller above is present, the system is an
ICH7DH system in RAID mode and no further action is required.

- 'Intel(R) 82801FR SATA RAID Controller'
If the controller above is present, the system is an
ICH6R system in RAID mode and no further action is required.

- 'Intel(R) 6300ESB SATA RAID Controller'
If the controller above is present, the system is an
ESB system in RAID mode and no further action is required.

- 'Intel(R) 82801ER SATA RAID Controller'
If the controller above is present, the system is an
ICH5R system in RAID mode and no further action is required.

- If neither of the controllers above are shown, then
the system is not running in RAID mode and you should
continue with step 6 below.

6. From the Device Manager, look for an entry named
'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers'.
If this entry is present, expand it and look for one of
the following controllers:

- 'Intel(R) 82801GR SATA AHCI Controller'
If the controller above is present, the system is an
ICH7R system in AHCI mode and no further action is required.

- 'Intel(R) 82801GH SATA AHCI Controller'
If the controller above is present, the system is an
ICH7DH system in AHCI mode and no further action is required.


- 'Intel(R) 82801FBM SATA AHCI Controller'
If the controller above is present, the system is an
ICH6M system in AHCI mode and no further action is required.

- 'Intel(R) 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller'
If the controller above is present, the system is an
ICH6R system in AHCI mode and no further action is required.

- If this controller is not present, then your system
is not in AHCI mode. No other modes are supported by
the Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager software and you
should continue with step 7 below.

7. Your system does not appear to be running in RAID or
AHCI mode. If you feel that your system is running in
RAID or AHCI mode and you do not see any of the
controllers listed above, you may choose to contact
your system manufacturer or place of purchase for
assistance.

 

[urbandragon]

Question???? are you trying to get windows to recognize the SATA drive partitions?????


if so have you checked disk management... right click my computer click manager.. from here click Disk management... does your sata drive show up here. you may be overlooking the fact that you will need to partition the sata drive before you will see it show in windows explorer.

 

[Mohlianum]

I have 2 SATA drives, I partitioned the first drive and installed XP on one half.
The other half hasn't been formatted & does not give that option when I right click it.

I didn't format or partition the second drive but it says it has the NTFS file system, (it's supposed to be a new drive) & it doesn't give me the option to partition it on right clicking. This I need to partition as it is a large drive.

The SCSI & RAID controllers in the system manager are

Silicon Image Sil3114, ITE 8212,

In the IDE ATA etc they are all IDE

I think it should be showing Intel 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller

Thankfully I still have my old PC as I haven't installed any network connections on the new one yet in case I reinstall, again!

 

[CreamyCheeze]

I've set up 2 sata drives,
and I couldn't find an option to change one drive into a master and the other into a slave in the bios.

but I don't think its needed, so I wont be looking at updating my bios.

when I did a new os install, the option to partition the drives and select which you want to use for you os are in there. i.e. drive one may be your back up, and drive two may be your os, and you can create as many partitions on each as you need.

also, if you format the drive you wanted to partition, you can atleast start using it. But yeah, that is the only suggestion I have, insert you os disc, and set up your partitions without touching the partition that has you os and then soft bood your pc. you have to go through all the preloading stuff, but thats one way of doing it.

 

[Mohlianum]

SATA Drives

I'm sorry, I should have posted to say that I eventually found that with the Asus m/board I have XP installs the SATA drives automatically & doesn't need any additional drivers.

In XP Pro all drive formatting is done in Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Disk Management.

Thanks